


knock and the door will be opened

by Dresupi



Series: Would You Like to See Something Strange?  (Halloween Prompts) [23]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Ambiguity, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Choose Your Own Ending, Concussions, Confusion, Cursebreaker Hermione Granger, F/M, Flirting, Forehead Kisses, Hand wavey explanations, Hermione Works at Gringotts, Innuendo, Many Possible Explanations, Not Epilogue Compliant, Possible Dream, Post-Battle of Hogwarts, possible time travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-25
Updated: 2017-10-25
Packaged: 2019-01-23 04:10:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12498468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dresupi/pseuds/Dresupi
Summary: There's a strange knocking sound coming from one of the deeper bank vaults in Gringotts.  Hermione and Bill are sent to investigate.  What they find is quite possibly more confusing than the knocking itself.Day 23 of my Halloween Prompts:  Knock





	knock and the door will be opened

**Author's Note:**

> October 23: Knock. 
> 
> Prompted by Anon.
> 
> Unbetaed and un-brit-picked. Also very late. My apologies. 
> 
> Also, my Gringotts stuff is a little hand-wavey. Let's roll with it, shall we? <3

There was a sharp knock on her cracked office door before Bill poked his head inside.  He smiled in what could only be described as a sympathetic way.  “I’m really sorry, ‘Mione…”  

Sighing, she let her quill rest on the desk.  “You’re  _ really _ sorry, but you’re going to have to cancel again,” she finished for him.  

“I won’t have to cancel… if you come  _ with _ me…” he said brightly.  

“What is it?” she asked, a little intrigued.  She’d wasn’t usually invited to join Bill on his curse-breaking assignments.  “And  _ where _ is it?”  

“It’s here.  And it’s a real puzzler…” He stepped fully into her office, his lanky limbs taking up nearly all the free space.  It was really less of an office and more of a cupboard really, a cupboard big enough for a desk, a chair, and the most unbelievably enlargement-charmed filing drawer in Diagon Alley.  

Whenever Bill came in, he very nearly sucked all the air from the room.  And from her lungs.  

In only the best ways, however.  

Hermione sent her quill to its proper place, the parchments she was pouring over flew into the filing drawer, tucked away for the night.  She grinned excitedly.  “I’d love to come along.”  

“Brilliant!” He grinned and exited her office, only to poke his head back in briefly.  “I’m going  _ now _ , if you’re ready?”  

She tucked her wand into her pocket and stood up, promptly knocking her forehead on her lamp and causing him to cringe.  

“Oy, that sounded like it hurt, are you alright?”  

She rubbed the spot on her head, her cheeks blushing crimson as she made her way around the desk to follow him out the door.  “I’m fine… my pride’s more bruised than my head.”  

He turned, brushing her hair out of her face, his fingers ghosting over the tender spot on her forehead.  “Your pride must be very bruised, then…I may have something for that in my flat, if you don’t mind stopping off there before we go to dinner…”  

She felt the corner of her mouth twitch upward.  “Thank you…”  

He began walking, stopping once more to turn to face her.  “I wasn’t… it wasn’t a ploy to get you into my flat, Hermione.  I’m not going to kiss it better or anything like… I actually  _ have _ …I promise there wasn’t…” Hermione decided to let him off the hook.  

“You could try?” she interjected.  “You know, to kiss it better.  It might work.”  

He reached down to take her hand, lacing their fingers and squeezing.  “If you’d like that, then maybe I will…  _ after _ work, of course.”

“Of course… speaking of, where are we going?” 

“Down to vault 1707.”  

Her eyebrows went up.  She’d been working at Gringotts for nearly eight years now, and she’d never in her life been down that far in the vaults.  Not even when she, Harry, and Ron had broken into the Lestrange’s vault.  Usually, the curses were on individual objects and they were either carried or sent to her office and swept away just as quickly.

“That far?” she asked. 

Bill nodded. 

“Are there dragons?” she asked.  

He shrugged.  “I’m not entirely certain.  I’ve never been down this far either… I have a clanker just in case…” He patted his pocket.  “There are also keys… plural…”  He dangled a ring of numbered keys from his fingertips. “We are technically supposed to take a team of five down, because the keys have to be inserted at the same time, but I was assured by Ragnok that you and I would be able to charm them sufficiently on our own…

“Why are we going all the way down there ourselves, is there a cursed object inside, or…” she trailed off.  “I just cannot believe Ragnok or Griphook or any of them would allow a wizard and a witch to go down there unaccompanied. 

“We’re being allowed because I asked.  And because none of them wanted to come down with us…”  He shook his head, leading her towards the cart.  “No… there’s no object.  There’s a knock.”  

Frowning, she climbed into the cart with him, unsure if she’d heard him correctly.  “A knock, you say?”  

“A  _ knocking _ , I suppose.  From the inside of the vault.”  

She nearly laughed aloud.  “What, is there someone locked IN there?”  

“I should really hope not.  There’s not been anyone down there in… ages.  In fact, no one can really remember whose vault it is…”  

Hermione did laugh aloud at that.  “The goblins keep excellent records.”  

“Quite.  Which is why it’s very much a mystery…and likely why the goblins are so keen to let us go down there ourselves.”  Bill looked excited.  In fact, the last time Hermione had seen Bill look this excited was the last time they’d taken a trip to Egypt.  This was his old-cursed-object-excitement.  

The cart began to move and Hermione reached out for Bill’s arm immediately.  An old habit she hadn’t been able to break.  Her fear of heights was still a very real one.  

He patted her arm and she felt, not instantly better, but a good measure of better at least.  

It took some time, but they finally stopped in front of a vault.  1707.  

There was nothing particularly innocuous looking about it.  No dragons like they’d passed on the way down.  Nothing out of the ordinary.  

Just a rather insistent knock coming from the inside.  

They climbed from the cart, Bill extended his hand towards her for assistance.  “Are you sure you’re alright?  You’ve got a bump on your forehead…”  He peered down at her, looking into her eyes. 

“I’m fine…” she assured him, her hand going up automatically to brush over the rapidly swelling hematoma. 

He gave her a final once over, leaning down to press his lips against her forehead, apologizing immediately after, implying that it was an impulsive action.  

Hermione assured him it was fine, all the while grinning away because Bill Weasley had impulsively kissed her forehead in such a tender way, it made her heart ache. 

The keys were placed in all the locks, hovering just outside the keyholes before Bill pushed them all in and turned them at once.  

The old locks were rusty and squeaky, creaking as bolt after bolt slid this way and that.  

And of course, because nothing was ever as easy as simply turning a key, the door remained shut tight. Even upon pulling. 

Hermione pressed her hand to the door, feeling the whir of magic keeping it shut.  “Oh this will be  _ great _ fun,” she said gleefully.  

Bill shot her a quick smile. “Worth being late for, Granger?”  

“Definitely…” 

The charms on the door proved to be a bit more complex than any Hermione had faced up until then, but that fact didn’t keep her from approaching it with her usual vigor.  

Bill knew enough about working with her to step slightly back, to keep his magic a few paces behind hers.  They worked well together in Egypt, and honestly, Hermione didn’t know why they hadn’t been asked to work together upon their return.     

There were some rather complicated curses woven around the entirety of the thing.  The entire vault.  She could feel the circuits it made.  And the circuits were far bigger than a Gringotts vault should be, even with enlargement charms.  

“How big is this vault?” she asked, frowning.  

“The same as any, they’re all the same size.  Even with enlargements, they’re technically all the same size.”  

It was curious.  But she was splitting her focus.  There were curses to be broken.  She could worry about the size later.  

It took nearly a half hour for all the complicated charms and curses to fall away.  

The entire time, the knocking hadn’t subsided.  It was almost as if whoever or  _ whatever _ was doing it had no idea they were out here.  

Bill pulled open the vault door and Hermione gasped upon peering inside.  

It was empty.  

“Lumos…”  Bill murmured, holding his wand in front of him as he strode inside.  

Hermione followed closely behind after making sure the large, rusty door wouldn’t swing closed on them.  

They looked around, finding absolutely nothing to explain the knocking.  Or the need for such security measures.  

Stepping back out, Bill pushed the door closed, ready to relock it and go report to the goblins of their findings.  

“It’s strange…” Hermione mused.  “But the knocking has--” She was halfway through a sentence when the door slid closed.  “Stopped…” Her voice echoed in a dark cavern.  

The torches, the light from the cart tracks was completely extinguished.  

Gone.  

The only sound other than Bill’s breathing was an insistent  _ drip, drip, drip _ of water on stone.  

“Lumos…” he murmured once more, illuminating the area around them. 

A dark cave.  

Stone walls.  

Save for one, which was definitely the inside of the vault door.  

Her stomach rumbled, she’d been hungry before coming down here, but not  _ this _ famished.  She glanced over at Bill, her eyes widening.  

“What?”  He reached up to brush a hand over his cheek and gasped at the feel of his own face.  “Wait…  I was… what was…”  

His cheeks were shaggy.  No stubble in sight, he had a full on beard.

Not at all uncommon for Bill, but he’d been clean shaven just a moment before.  

Hermione reached up to feel her head.  To feel for the goose egg that had swollen there from hitting her head an hour before.  The goose egg that had prompted Bill to kiss her.  

She felt nothing.  No pain, no bump, just smooth skin.  “What’s going on?”  she asked.  “What… how long have we been here?”  

“I dunno…” He frowned, shining his wand around the room.  “What the…”  There were scratchings all over the walls.  Scratchings in handwriting they both very much recognized.  “Hermione… what’s all this?”  

She took in the scratchings, all in her own handwriting.  Nothing she could remember ever writing before. “I didn’t write it.  I didn’t.  I’ve never been here before in my life...I…” She trailed off, panic taking up residence in her gut as she tried to ascertain a way out.  

Bill was right there with her, circling the walls of the cave until they met again at the vault door, staring up at it in all it's massive glory.  

It came to her in a burst of realization. Hermione suddenly knew  _ exactly _ what they had to do.  

She reached up and began knocking.      

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are love, maybe leave me some? <3 
> 
> Find me on [tumblr](http://dresupi.tumblr.com/), if that's your thing. <3


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